Crimean Astrophysical Observatory
HiDHN solar images

The Crimean Astrophysical Observatory is located on the Crimean Peninsula
in the country of Ukraine (large map), at a longitude of 34°1'E and
a latitude of
44°32'N.
The CrAO is situated between Simferopol and Bakisaraj, and to the North-West of
the resort city of Yalta. (see detailed area) Much of Crimea experiences very mild temperatures
in the summer time, which makes CrAO a good observing site.

The images obtained from the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, are taken
using a similar observing system utilized at Mt. Wilson. The primary
difference is the size of the camera chip at 649x493 pixels. Compared to
the 1024x1024 chip used at Mt. Wilson, the CrAO image is 1/4th the size and
resolves only 1/2 as much solar detail. Images are acquired by integrating
the focused
image of the sun over three seconds at a frequency of 30Hz, for a total of 90
images. One of the limitations of this method is the long exposure necessary
to build up the solar image. Atmospheric seeing can disturb the image of the
sun over longer exposures, causing blurring and decreased resolution. A future upgrade to the system in Crimea will be
the installation of a 1024x1024 pixel 12-bit camera. This will bring the
resolution of solar images at Crimea up to the same resolution of images being
acquired at Mt. Wilson. Both sites use a sodium-magneto-optical-filter

Below, you will find a sampling of images from Crimea for May 12, 1996. May
10th was the official beginning of image-acquisition for summer 1996 at CrAO,
and May 12th was the first day of overlap for both sites. Both sites can
observe the sun at the same time, for up to 2 hours, during May through August.
The images below are presented as a comparison of features seen on
the sun from two separate locations. In all images, north is at the top, and
west is to the right.